The Seduction of Redhorn's Son (§7 of the Redhorn Cycle)

Paul Radin's Text

(134) One day they heard someone singing in the distance:

Redhorn, come on!
Redhorn, who they say is holy,
Come on!

Then the younger son of Red Horn¹ said, "Brother, you go after her."

"Say," said their father, "what are you naughty boys saying? This woman used to say that to me when I was young but I would not have anything to do with her." Then Turtle spoke, "Boys, my friends, your father is young and I am old,² yet she used to say that to me before she said it to your father. However I, too, would have nothing to do with her. Later on she tried your father. Since she failed, she is now trying you. She is probably very old by this time." My, if she had only said that to Turtle!³ He would probably have seized the opportunity for everyone knows how very fond he is of women! Then the younger boy said again, "Brother, go after her."

When he had asked him four times he consented. He prepared himself for going in the following way. He wore a breech-clout on one side only, red leggings, and a black fur robe as a blanket. He tied four eagle feathers to each corner of the robe and one in the middle, and had an eagle feather stuck in his hair. He carried an otter skin as a tobacco pouch on his back, with a red flannel tied to it.⁴ Thus appareled he started out and soon he came to a bridge from which he could see an oval-shaped lodge. When he came to it he went in and there found an old woman. She said to him, "Grandson, this woman has been after your father all her life and now she is after you. It seems her wish is now going to be gratified." Thus she spoke. "There, that is the bridge!"

Then he turned himself into an old man. His clothes as well as his fur blanket, (135) these too, he made look old. His feathers all looked worn out; he did not have much hair on his head and he had sore eyes.⁵ The bridge he was to cross was made of iron. Some portions of it were so narrow that it was almost impossible to squeeze through. Then he went to the edge of the water and said, "Oh, you red-stomached leeches, come here I" And many of them came out to help him. Picking two that would fit the bottom of his feet, he said, "I'll borrow the two of you." So he took them and put them at the bottom of his feet, and then started across the iron bridge.⁶

Now the woman was sitting there on a platform with a red cloth as a covering. Looking around her she saw a homely old man coming towards her. "Now see here," she said, "go back, I did not call you." "But," he replied, "you called me and that is why I am coming, chieftainess." "But I told you to go," she said and, getting down from the platform, she went to the bridge, raised it up and down and turned it over, but still he ran on the bridge, so she screamed and ran away. "Oh!" said her people, "the chieftainess has been calling for a man and now she has got one." They looked and there came a very homely old man. "Well! Well! Well!" they said and gazed at him. When he reached them he asked, "Where does the chief live?" and they said, "Over there in the big lodge." "Now this can't be Red Horn," they said to themselves. But one of them said, "It might be he for they say he is holy. Indeed, as he passed me, he smelled very strongly of medicine.⁷ It surely must be he."

When he got to the lodge he went in. A young man was there and as he entered this one said to his sister, "Now, sister, I said that it was not going to make any difference who came, you would have to marry him." Then turning to the old man, he said, "Brother-in-law, your wife is over there in the partition."

He started to go in but just as he was entering, she kicked him. The old man fell in the center of the lodge flat upon his back. "Why, you must have hurt him. What is the matter with you?" said the young man. Then he said, "Now, just go in, brother-in-law. She does not mean it." So he started to go in again and he received another kick. Four times he tried it and four times she kicked him out. So, finally, he sat down opposite the young man and filled his pipe. "Well, I think I'll go home. I came here because she called me but she is trying to kill me." As his voice seemed to sound different from what it had been before, the young man looked and there sat Red Horn himself. "All right," said the young man, "I'll see that she does not go away."

When Red Horn went out the woman took a peep and there walked Red Horn. "Oh, my husband!" said she and started to go after him but her brother threw her back and stood in the doorway. As Red Horn got in sight of home someone said, "Look there!" And sure enough it was Red Horn on his way home. When he got to the bridge he started to run across. First he went into the old woman's lodge and said, "Grandmother, you can arrange it, I know, so I am going to pull up one of your lodge-poles and get under it."⁸ "All right," said she. So he took up one of the poles and crawled into the hole underneath it. Then she replaced the pole. (136)

After a while, the chieftainess came running up to the old woman and said, "Grandmother, where did my husband go?" "I don't know," said the old lady. The chieftainess looked around a little and saw her husband's tracks. They led to the foot of the lodge-pole. So she pulled it up, threw it aside and went in after him. Farther and farther she tracked him. However, Red Horn got home and he said to his brother, "On account of you I almost got killed." "Never mind," said the brother. "Let her come. She is only a woman.⁹ We can give her the same treatment she gave you when she comes."

The next morning, old Red Horn went outside and there he saw a woman completely naked. In her chase she had lost one piece of clothing after another. "Well I declare!" said the old man and went back into the lodge.¹⁰ The woman remained sitting there. The old man said, "There is a woman out there all naked. Hurry, make her some clothes and give them to her!" They immediately made some clothes for her and brought them to her. She put them on, and then came into the lodge. They told her to go into the next partition. "Get out," said the young brother in revenge. However she did not leave but, instead, started to go in. As she entered she made a noise and she was almost kicked into the fire for both men had kicked her. "What is the matter with you boys?" said the old man. "Daughter-in-law, they don't mean it, you just go right in."¹¹ So she started to go in again but again they kicked her back. Four times they did this to her. Then the younger brother was sent for as it was he who had sent for the woman. He came and married her. The other boys told everyone what she had done to their older brother and that it was for that reason they had kicked her in return. "She, being a woman, ought to have known better than to treat men that way," they said. "She certainly must have done some thing to them for otherwise they would not have treated her in that manner."

Shortly after this, the older one also married. He did not have any children, however, because he was holy.¹²

The Redhorn Cycle is ended^a

Radin's Notes to the Text

¹ Here the younger brother is playing exactly the same role that the younger of the two Twins does in the Twin cycle. Hitherto it had been the older of the two children who had been giving the orders.
² Turtle is the second being that Earthmaker is supposed to have created.
³ This is, of course, a comment of the narrator.
⁴ i.e., he was dressed as befits a man going out to meet a woman with whom he is to elope ceremonially.
⁵ The stereotyped description of an old man.
⁶ This bridge has practically the same traits as that of the one which the souls of the dead must cross in their journey to spiritland.
⁷ This "smell" of holiness is a trait of a number of great heroes.
⁸ A very widespread motif. It must, incidentally, be remembered that this whole episode does not belong to the Red Horn cycle.
⁹ A man's expression of depreciation.
¹⁰ The Winnebago are quite Victorian on the question of nudity. Something else, however, may be involved here. A newly married woman is always presented with new clothes. That the old man is thinking of her as such seems to be indicated by the next paragraph.
¹¹ It is unthinkable to a Winnebago for a man to strike or kick a woman.
¹² This is accepted doctrine.

Commentary. "singing in the distance" — when Orion is just rising with the sun in late June, the moon (the seductress) is a thin crescent. In Hocąk symbolism, sound can stand for light, so a relatively faint sound in the distance stands for a relatively faint light, which is what the crescent moon of that time produces. The moon stands between the Hyades and the Pleiades when it is above the Milky Way.

"red leggings" — this reflects the red color of the horizon where Orion is rising with the sun. So his lower body is red.

"a black fur robe as a blanket" — this symbolizes the night sky.

"four eagle feathers to each corner of the robe and one in the middle" — the eagle is the bird of the sky, although it is normally associated with the day sky. The four corners of the black blanket represent the four quarters of the night sky, so each feather represents a cardinal point. The fifth feather represents the center.

"an eagle feather stuck in his hair" — this makes a sixth eagle feather. This shows that they represent directions: front and back (north and south), right and left (east and west), up and down (at the center). Redhorn's association with directions and their number, six, is seen elsewhere as well.

"otter skin" — as Orion rises with the sun it does so at the eastern edge of the world where are the banks of the Ocean Sea (Te Ją). The otter symbolizes the emergence from an aquatic environment. The red flannel tied to the otter skin is also a reflection of the red color of the horizon.

"bridge" — the bridge is the Milky Way, as will become more apparent as the analysis proceeds.

"an old man" — as time progresses, Redhorn leaves the horizon, rising well before sunrise. Therefore, in other allegories his hair turns from red to white. Here his clothes fade from their red color, and his hair may be presumed to change to the color of most stars. He has also aged in the sense that he is not now "newborn" from the horizon.

"iron" — this refers to the darkness of the bridge, since it is a bridge found only in the night sky. Meteorites, which appear to arise from fallen stars, were known to have been made of iron, at least in part. Consequently, the stars of such a bridge are likely made of iron themselves.

"narrow" — this refers to the narrow spot in the Milky Way, called the "Cygnus Rift," where it splits a short distance near the star Deneb.

"put them at the bottom of his feet" — as he starts out on his journey, he begins at the horizon, so that the leeches at the very base of his feet represent the red of the horizon and his place of origin in the Ocean Sea at the edge of the world. He has now moved from red leggings to red at the very bottom of his feet. As the leeches in time digest the blood, they soon cease to have a connection to redness at all.

"a red cloth as a covering" — at the beginning of Orion's journey, when it is at the horizon, the moon is about to go into conjunction with the sun and is also bathed in the light of the sunrise. She wears a red wrap for the same reason that the daughter of the chief of the Thunders on the western horizon is said to wear a polychrome wrap: both represent the colors of the sunset or sunrise.

"coming towards her" — as the year progresses, Orion rises higher in the sky, but in the same relative position in relation to the Milky Way. If one treats the Milky Way as a static arch, the illusion is that Orion is climbing high and higher over this arch or "bridge." All the while, the moon stays ahead of him, between the Hyades and the Pleiades.

"you called me" — this implies what is suggested in other contexts: Redhorn is cross-generationally identical with his doppelgänger son. In this story they are even both called "Redhorn."

"turned it over" — the progress of Alnilam across the Milky Way "bridge" is disoriented midway through as the Milky Way is inverted in relation to the star. This process is tabulated below. All times are sunrise in 1750 at Four Lakes, Wisconsin. Both the altitude and the azimuth are given for Alnilam and that part of the Milky Way nearest it; the azimuths are given for that part of the Milky Way where Alnilam was situated when it rose with the sun (proximal), and for the Milky Way on the opposite side of the sky (distal).

On November 22, 1750, Alnilam set achronically with sunrise. The full moon set achronically on Nov. 13 of that year. So it is at this time that Redhorn and the seductress touch ground together. As can be seen, on July 28, Alnilam is 13° above the edge of the Milky Way bridge, but by the time we reach November 14, the situation is completely inverted, with Alnilam now 13° below the Milky Way. So around the beginning of September, the bridge was flipped over. The two ends of the "bridge" remain from about 180° to 210° apart, which is to say, on opposite sides of the sky, but the proximal end drifts over time from east to southwest, while the distal end moves from west to almost due north.

"still he ran on the bridge"— she could not shake him off the bridge because he is attached to it by leeches, and leeches cannot be shaken off by anyone to whom they attach themselves (personal experience).

"she screamed" — as noted, sound stands for light. The moon at this place and time (mid-November, near the Hyades), is full and therefore "screaming" its light.

"ran away" — hitherto the moon has been tracked as it stood between the Hyades and the Pleiades at sunrise (Four Lakes, Wisconsin). On November 14, 1750 this is where the full moon stands. On November 22, Orion achronically sets, and is no longer in the sky with the full moon of sunrise. However, the full moon of dawn does not stay at this spot where Orion went to ground, but "takes off" to the south, as we can see on this table which shows the azimuths of the full moons at sunrise, 1750-1751:

So the moon runs 65° from the northwestern to the southwestern horizon. Alnilam set with the sun on May 20, 1751, and rose again July 4, 1751. So while Redhorn's star is completely gone from the sky, the full moon stops running.

"his sister" — the brother is probably Evening Star (the Red Star), who is Moon's brother elsewhere.

"fell" — the action now shifts from sunrise to sunset. The last scene terminated at sunrise on November 14, so we now pick up with the next full moon, at sunset the next month, December 11. At this time, as the full moon stands by the Hyades at sunset, Orion isn't even in the sky, but just below the horizon. So it is as if the Moon had kicked him out of her lodge (the night sky) and he landed on the ground on his back (not standing or up).

"fill his pipe" — he is on the ground and not yet risen at sunset. When he lights his pipe, the fire will indicate that his star has risen after the setting sun and shows its light as does the pipe.

"his voice" — using sound for light, this means that now Alnilam, Redhorn's star, has achronically risen with the setting sun, which occurred on December 30, 1750.

"took a peep" — the partition that she peeks around is the Milky Way, which stands like a curtain between the full moon and Alnilam.

"on his way home" — with the achronical rise of Orion with the setting sun, Alnilam-Redhorn now begins the same trek across the Milky Way bridge that he took when he cosmically rose with the sun in the first scene of the story.

"the hole" — Alnilam heliacally sets on May 20, 1751 and does not appear in the sky for a couple of months. So it appears that he has sunk beneath the earth.

"the chieftainess came running up" — the seductress has followed Redhorn all the way to the ground. This can be seen in the pictures of the sky provided below, in which the moon is shown at sunset at the edge of the Milky Way near Gemini, where she follows behind Orion until he disappears on May 20. There is no moon in June that stands in the same position (near Gemini) at sunset, so shortly after Orion disappears from the sky, so to does this moon. This is because the sun is now in Gemini, so that the constellation has itself disappeared from the firmament. Therefore, the seductress, as the moon standing near Gemini, has followed Redhorn as Alnilam into the bowels of the earth.

January 10, 1751 February 6, 1751 Starry Night Software, www.starrynight.com March 6, 1751 April 2, 1751 April 29, 1751 May 27, 1751 Starry Night Software, www.starrynight.com

"she had lost one piece of clothing after another" — it can be seen in the pictures above that as the moon trails after Orion it goes from full to crescent, until finally, when she enters into the hole in the ground herself (conjunction) she looses all her light. She is fully clothed when she was full, so it follows that she is naked when she had no light at all. Therefore, in her pursuit, she gradually lost all her clothing, which is to say, her light.

"she put them on" — the scene now changes, and we are once again at that time of year, the winter, when the moon is fully dressed (full).

"the lodge" — the lodge is the Hyades, which are shaped like a tepee.

"she was almost kicked into the fire" — the events related here occur at the stillness of the moon, a period in which the moon passes low through the Hyades. She goes into the lodge only to be kicked back out, and as she passes she goes towards the horizon. Normally, the fire would symbolize the sun, but now the sun is on the other side of the world where it has set. She does not actually land in the fire, however, which she would have done had this been conjunction. She does, however, land at the base of the Milky Way at the horizon. The Milky Way can be homologized to a column of smoke, and at the base of such a column is the fire whence the smoke is imagined to originate. It is here that she lands.

January 1-3, 1757 December 22-24, 1757 Starry Night Software, www.starrynight.com December 12-13, 1758 Dec. 30, 1759 - Jan. 1, 1760 Starry Night Software, www.starrynight.com

"four times" — as may be seen in the illustrations above, the stillness of the moon causes it to pass from the lower edge of the Hyades to the upper edge in four years. However, in the prior four years, it had passed through going the other way, with one year outside the Hyades, making a 9 year cycle. However, it is sufficient for the purposes of the myth that she be kicked out four times, as that too is a complete cycle, and four is the number of completion.

Isomorphisms. The pursuit of a woman, which is so prominent in our present story, is also featured in "Įcorúšika and His Brothers," and while there are many divergences, they are in substantial agreement.

In "The Seduction of Redhorn's Son," the hero and the woman chase one another back and forth, whereas in the Įcorúšika story, the pursuit is one way. The tenor of the seduction story is more light-hearted and deals with marriage; but the story of Įcorúšika is one of revenge. The pursuer and the pursued are switched in the story's second half, but many details remain intact.

Comparative Material. There is an intergenerational identity that occurs in Redhorn myths that may be like that of Demeter and Kore (Persephone) in Greek mythology. The story "Redhorn's Father," says that Redhorn is the son of He who has Human Heads as Earrings, which is just another name for Redhorn.

An interesting parallel exists to the "Pursuing Bride" theme. There is an Aztec, or more generally "Chichimec," god named Mixcoatl, who shows strong similarities to Redhorn. He is chief over a hoard of warlike spirits who bear the plural of his name, Mixcoa (or Mimixcoa). In one story, two of the Mixcoa, Xiuhnel and Mimich, are chasing after two bicephalic deer that have fallen from the sky. The deer change into women. One of the women eats Xiuhnel, so Mimich builds a fire into which he jumps, but the other woman, who is Itzpapalotl, jumps in after him in pursuit. [In the myth of the creation of the sun and moon, the man who becomes the sun jumps into the fire first, and the second to jump in becomes the moon.] She wants to mate with him, but given the fate of his brother, Mimich runs for his life. Eventually, she gets hung up on a pot cactus, and Mimich is able to shoot her.^b

Links: Redhorn, Sons of Redhorn, The Redhorn Panel of Picture Cave. An American Star Map, The Sons of Earthmaker, Turtle, Wolf, Otters, Storms as He Walks, Thunderbirds, Yųgiwi.

Links within the Redhorn Cycle: §6 The Adventures of Redhorn's Sons.

Stories: featuring the sons of Redhorn as characters: The Redhorn Cycle, Redhorn's Sons, The Adventures of Redhorn's Sons, The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father, Redhorn's Father; mentioning Redhorn: The Redhorn Cycle, Redhorn's Sons, The Mission of the Five Sons of Earthmaker, Redhorn's Father, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Spirit of Gambling, The Green Man, The Hocągara Contest the Giants, cp. The Cosmic Ages of the Hocągara; in which leeches occur: The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Two Boys, The Stench-Earth Medicine Origin Myth, The Two Brothers (blood-suckers).

Themes: crossing a river by summoning the aid of water creatures: Hare Visits the Bodiless Heads (crabs); in the course of his travels, a man enters a lodge where he finds a grandmother who helps him: Ocean Duck, Waruǧábᵉra, Trickster Gets Pregnant, Trickster Soils the Princess, Wojijé; crossing a body of water on the back of an animal: Ocean Duck (Waterspirit), Hare Visits the Bodiless Heads (crabs), The Hocąk Migration Myth (turtle), Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp (beaver), Pete Dupeé and the Ghosts (horse), cf. The Shaggy Man; description of a courtship outfit: Redhorn's Father, Trickster Gets Pregnant, Trickster Soils the Princess, The Dipper, The Nannyberry Picker; red as a symbolic color: The Journey to Spiritland (hill, willows, reeds, smoke, stones, haze), The Gottschall Head (mouth), The Chief of the Heroka (clouds, side of Forked Man), The Red Man (face, sky, body, hill), Spear Shaft and Lacrosse (neck, nose, painted stone), Redhorn's Father (leggings, stone sphere, hair), The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father (hair, body paint, arrows), Wears White Feather on His Head (man), The Birth of the Twins (turkey bladder headdresses), The Two Boys (elk bladder headdresses), Trickster and the Mothers (sky), Rich Man, Boy, and Horse (sky), The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits (Buffalo Spirit), Bluehorn Rescues His Sister (buffalo head), Wazųka (buffalo head headdress), The Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth (horn), The Brown Squirrel (protruding horn), Bear Clan Origin Myth (funerary paint), Hawk Clan Origin Myth (funerary paint), Deer Clan Origin Myth (funerary paint), Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth (stick at grave), Pigeon Clan Origins (Thunderbird lightning), Trickster's Anus Guards the Ducks (eyes), Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp (scalp, woman's hair), The Race for the Chief's Daughter (hair), The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy (hair), Redhorn Contests the Giants (hair), Redhorn's Sons (hair), The Woman's Scalp Medicine Bundle (hair), A Wife for Knowledge (hair), Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle (hair), The Hocągara Contest the Giants (hair of Giantess), A Man and His Three Dogs (wolf hair), The Red Feather (plumage), The Man who was Blessed by the Sun (body of Sun), The Man Whose Wife was Captured (v. 2) (body of the Warrior Clan Chief), Red Bear, Eagle Clan Origin Myth (eagle), The Shell Anklets Origin Myth (Waterspirit armpits), The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty (Waterspirits), The Roaster (body paint), The Man who Defied Disease Giver (red spot on forehead), The Wild Rose (rose), The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth (warclub), Įcorúšika and His Brothers (ax & packing strap), Hare Kills Flint (flint), The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head (edges of flint knives), The Nannyberry Picker (leggings), Yųgiwi (blanket); a woman not only rejects a suitor, but kicks him: Įcorúšika and His Brothers; (removing a tent pole and) entering another world through a hole in the ground: Įcohorucika and His Brothers, How the Thunders Met the Nights, Redhorn's Sons, Iron Staff and His Companions; people chase one another underground: Įcorúšika and His Brothers, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, Redhorn's Sons, Iron Staff and His Companions; a woman takes the initiative in courtship: The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, Trickster Gets Pregnant, Redhorn and His Brothers Marry, Old Man and Wears White Feather, (see also, Redhorn's Father); marriage to a yųgiwi (princess): The Nannyberry Picker, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, The Big Stone, Partridge's Older Brother, Redhorn's Sons, The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, River Child and the Waterspirit of Devil's Lake, The Roaster, Soft Shelled Turtle Gets Married, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, White Wolf, The Two Boys, Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, The Shaggy Man, The Thunderbird, The Red Feather, The Orphan who was Blessed with a Horse, The Birth of the Twins (v. 3), Trickster Visits His Family, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, Redhorn's Father, Old Man and Wears White Feather, Morning Star and His Friend, Thunderbird and White Horse, Rich Man, Boy, and Horse, Shakes the Earth, The Nightspirits Bless Ciwoit’éhiga; a hero wins a girl but decides to let one of his brothers marry her: The Race for the Chief's Daughter, Redhorn and His Brothers Marry, The Raccoon Coat.

Notes

^a Paul Radin, Winnebago Hero Cycles: A Study in Aboriginal Literature (Baltimore: Waverly Press, 1948) 134-136.

^b Leyenda de los Soles, 79:34-80:5 in John Bierhorst, History and Mythology of the Aztecs: the Codex Chimalpopoca (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1992) 151-152.